dreamer_easy | Entries tagged with syria

These damn bookmarks. I just can't keep up. I don't know what else I can do. Let me tell you, if you really want to get a head of steam up about this stuff, read about the Holocaust. You can't parallel the situations directly or simply, in intent or numbers or context. But the individual misery, the bureaucratic horror, the bigotry and cruelty, the visceral outrage - those will be familiar.

500 asylum seekers face deportation for missing protection deadline (GA, 29 September 2017) The sudden tight deadline was, of course, intended to create this situation - to get rid of some of the government's embarrassment by sending people, including families with young children, back to their deaths.

In better news, the Asylum Seekers Resources Centre reports that the movement to #LetThemStay is working: the government has eased back the throttle on its attempt to force asylum seekers back to Nauru and Manus with the threat of homelessness and starvation and sometimes I can't believe I am typing sentences like this why doesn't the Earth fall into the sun right now.

Peter Dutton Is Being Asked To Explain Why He Just Lost His Chief Medical Officer (Buzzfeed News, 15 September 2017). I would like to think Dr John Brayley quit as Australian Border Force's surgeon-general out of shame and embarrassment, perhaps over the death of Hamed Shamshiripour. The problem is: "Brayley's departure effectively leaves asylum seekers and refugees without a medical advocate in the immigration department."

Peter Dutton introduces bill to ban phones from immigration detainees (GA, 13 September 2017). Purportedly this is to stop detained criminals from organising crimes. "If the minister is concerned about the criminal use of mobile phones then he needs to separate vulnerable individuals who come to Australia for protection from those alleged criminals,' said George Newhouse, human rights lawyer and principal solicitor for the National Justice Project."

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has attacked the decisions of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, which overturned 39% of his decisions in the first four months of this year, and is replacing more than fifty of its members. Meanwhile, the Refugee Review Tribunal made an incredible cockup in the case of a disabled Hazara man.

Syrian, Iraqi refugees' trauma levels 'highest I've seen', says advocate (5 October 2017, 10 am)

Detention no place for kids: Church abuse survivors (Newcastle Herald, 8 June 2015)."We've got vulnerable children being used by our politicians in a game that's about political gain and clinging on to power and authority, and that's completely contrary to what Australia ought to represent."

newwavefeminism's posting on Tumblr, above, sums up the contradictory response of the West in general, tbh - certainly Australia's. This challenging essay by Dina Nayeri explores the gratitude expected of refugees - how we begrudge and resent giving the help we promised, how we expect to be rewarded for it - which I think connects directly to this hypocrisy.

Manus healthcare provider forced to leave for practising unlicensed (GA, 3 April 2017) "International Health and Medical Services replaced by skeleton staff from PNG company Paradise, providing detainees only basic and emergency medical care... Some detainees requiring medication for chronic conditions have been left without medication during the changeover." If those "chronic conditions" include mental illness, I can tell you from personal experience that a lot of people are going to get very sick very suddenly. As a diabetic, I shudder to think what other diseases are being left untreated. Behrouz Boochani: "The refugees are happy that IHMS left Manus, not because they think Paradise will provide medical treatment for them, but because they hate IHMS. IHMS was one of the main tools for torturing people in Manus during four years of suffering."

US officials fingerprint refugees on Manus Island as part of US-Australia resettlement deal (ABC, 5 April 2017)

Amnesty International report says billion-dollar offshore centre contracts should be made public (ABC, 5 April 2017)

Amnesty warns any company taking over Manus and Nauru camps complicit in 'abuse' (GA, 5 April 2017)

Filming 'Chauka' at Manus Island's detention facilities (The Saturday Paper, 8 April 2017) | Iranian refugee's film shot on mobile phone shows life inside Manus Island detention centre (ABC, 3 April 2017)

Former Australian journalist detained on Manus Island by PNG immigration officials (ABC, 7 April 2017)

Amnesty calls for release of refugee Loghman Sawari in Papua New Guinea (GA, 5 April 2017)

Offshore detention may hurt Australia's bid for UN Human Rights Council seat (GA, 7 April 2017) | Australians who blew the whistle on offshore detention to speak at global Women in the World Summit summit (SMH, 2 April 2017)

Details of Australia's asylum seeker boat turnbacks released in FoI battle (GA, 3 April 2017)

More than 180 Syrian and Iraqi refugees resettled in Australia (ABC, 6 April 2016). So less than 11,800 to go, then!

But what could be slowing the process down so much, I wonder? Refugee Council accuses Australia of 'cherry picking' Syrian refugees for resettlement (ABC, 31 March 2016) UNHCR: "We are aware that some countries would prefer to take Christians or other minorities but that does not necessarily mean that they are the most vulnerable. We don't choose submissions based on religion or ethnicity — we choose it on whether people can survive or not."

Reza Barati killing: Man accused of murdering Manus Island detainee escapes jail (ABC, 4 April 2016)

Manus Island witness 'terrified' after Reza Barati's accused killer escapes (SMH, 5 April 2016)

Tensions high at Manus Island detention centre over plan to forcibly separate asylum seekers (SMH, 31 March 2016): "A plan to separate asylum seekers according to their refugee status has inflamed tensions at the Manus Island detention centre... The PNG government has confirmed it intends to 'accommodate the cohorts separately' to prepare them to leave the centre after June 30." These poor devils - first danger in the camps, then either danger in PNG or danger in the countries they fled.

Catching up on links:

Witness in Reza Barati murder trial says he is dogged by death threats (GA, 23 October 2015) "Asylum seeker Benham Satah says he is under constant threat in the Manus Island detention centre and he has been told he will be killed unless he withdraws his testimony."

Reza Barati murder: Australia has questions to answer over failure to protect witness, UN official says (GA, 20 October 2015)

Trial of PNG men accused of Reza Barati murder to reopen with more evidence [an "extraordinary step"] (GA, 2 October 2015)

Reza Barati: Pair accused of asylum seeker's murder claim 'false' witness statement written by 'Australian guards' at Manus centre (ABC, 28 September 2016)

Reza Barati: Trial of pair accused of killing asylum seeker adjourned, main witness fears for life (ABC, 25 September 2015)

Expats allegedly involved in Reza Barati murder not returned to PNG, court told (GA, 25 September 2015)

Men accused of Reza Barati's death in Manus detention centre stand trial (GA, 21 September 2015)

Witness to Manus Island death 'too scared' to testify (SMH, 18 September 2015)

Contact Australia's new Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull

What might the recent leadership spill mean for asylum seekers and refugees? The new PM has expressed "concern" about those held in offshore detention (although he insists they won't settle here) and has been called on by colleagues and others to do something about it.

Will Turnbull be the leader who creates the long-overdue regional framework, instead of playing Tweedledum and Tweedledee with human lives? Will the Save The Children staff who were slandered and deported from Nauru be given any sort of explanation or apology? Will Syrian asylum seekers and refugees in detention be made part of, or added to, our small but important one-off humanitarian intake from that country -including the the young man who was voluntarily repatriated from Manus to rescue his wife and newborn daughter and tortured on his arrival?). Will those brought here from Syria be chosen on grounds of their need or by their religion?

A couple of weeks after Turnbull was sworn in, the UN's Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Professor François Crépeau, cancelled his planned visit due to the Border Force Act, which makes his job impossible to perform. An open letter calls on the new PM to allow detention centre workers talk to the UN representative without fear of reprisal.

Meanwhile, thanks to a smart campaign called No Business in Abuse, detention centre operator Transfield (soon to be renamed Broadspectrum) is under pressure not just from human rights groups but from unions, shareholders, investors. The company may also face legal action over abuses in the camps.

Refugee crisis: How you can help refugees trying to reach safety in Europe and here in Australia

First, the good news: the PM has agreed to permanently resettle 12,000 Syrian refugees. The 12,000 places will be in addition to the annual offshore quota and Muslims will not be less eligible than other refugees.

Meanwhile, a Syrian asylum seeker has been repatriated after two years at the Manus Island detention centre. Syrian asylum seekers on Manus are being placed under extreme pressure to return home, including those who are severely mentally ill, including the sharing of their information with Syrian authorities.

Catch-up time (and how).

Australia's current annual humanitarian intake is 13,750 people, reduced this year from 20,000. That includes both onshore applications (people who arrive by boat without visas or by plane with visas) and offshore applications (asylum seekers and other humanitarian applicants). 4,000 places out of this number have been set aside for Christians and Yazidis fleeing Islamic State (IS) in Iraq.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten suggested raising Australia's annual humanitarian intake to assist refugees from Iraq and Syria. Liberal Backbencher Wyatt Roy has also proposed a doubling of our annual intake. Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has rejected this on grounds of cost and, inexplicably, the backlog of asylum seekers in detention. (IMHO this makes it clear that "stopping the boats" is not the government's goal, and "keeping refugees out" is.)

One Syrian and several Iraqis were returned quote voluntarily unquote from offshore detention in August. In July, the cash offered to those returning was increased. Under the current government these payments have totalled more than $3 million.